Matrix Games Forums

Stridor,

First of all, thank you you for taking the time and writing up the how-to ... much appreciation!!

I have some questions ...

1. In Motomouse's bike thread you said ...

By having your riders part of the vehicle mesh you can have them lying about dead when the bike blows up. You can also tie their head and body movements into the wheel rotation cycle (you get 60 frames to play with in that case). The other benefit is that you won't get the dead TC bug! You will have to have a null TC however.

What I would like to do is start fresh and take the mesh of a TC and animate him. At the moment, I can only see that we just add the TC frame to the model and the animation for him is all spelled out in the original X file ... right? I know you're busy but by chance can you elaborate more on animating the TC. Here are some of my ideas based on your tut ...

a. During keyframe 200, the TC mesh moves rapidly into the hull (closed hatch). For 201, he pop's back out ... and 202 he pop's back in. Sort of like a Jack-in-the-Box [:D] ... without the crank and music.
b. Wheel roation cycle ... as you explained it above.
c. Death animation ... well, I'll surprise you on that!

Anyway, does the game have a problem with NOT having a "Frame_bone_tankcommander" in the code? I'm think not since it's extra bling frames.

2. Position Scaling ... When exporting you set a scale of 0.3937 ... well, if we begin the tut using the proper scale and then change it again , won't this shrink it even more? I haven't gotten this far with my tank yet so I thought it was odd scaling it twice ... Of course, as a smelly human what do I know about any of this[:D].

3. Extra Bling ... You mentioned this and I'm wondering ... Can you show a quick example of extra bling? I'm curious as to where in the frame heiarchy it would go and what the naming of the frame would be ... or does the names matter ... ie frame_bone_bling ?

Thanks again ... I'm full of questions!

Rob

After I wrote that I just thought of something regarding adding the TC mesh to the model ... when the TC takes a casualty hit he will still be shown[:(].

I wish we could move the Frame_bone_tankcommander joint down into the vehicle during the death keyframes.

Also, if the original TC commander X file animation had him move down during those death keyframes, would that fix the bug?

Rob I have tried all that in the past! Big problem is that the normal map will get applied to a commander texture (if he is not part of the body.dds which he probably shouldn't be) and he will look horribly scared! You could do it without normal maps but then your tank wouldn't look so good [:(]

With the current TC death bug it is a real PITA as the commander bone is getting reset anyway [:@]

If you model your tank in real word coordinates such that 1 MS3D unit = 1 meter then use 0.3937 during export to have it scaled correctly in the game. I prefer to model that way instead of modelling in game units from the start.

Extra bling gets a joint in the hierarchy as you would expect.

Eg. Hull Box to get blown off then the box joint should be a child of the body joint.
Eg2. Turret MG gets blown off then the MG joint should be a child of the turret joint (which is a child of the body joint)

Special note: If you want stuff to move or rattle around during wheel rotation (eg fenders move, antenna sway, MG prowl, boxes rattle) then ensure you export the moving part as part of the Wheels set (R or L doesn't matter). In that case you would have to export all the parent joints as well.

Eg you want the rear hull box to move (rattle) with wheel rotation.

The the hierarchy becomes

Frame_mesh
Frame_bone_body -> Frame_bone_box
Frame_bone_wheelL01
...
Frame_bone_wheelL0X

When you export the body.X you *don't* include the Frame_bone_box joint or mesh.
When you export the wheelsL.X you *do* include the Frame_bone_body (but not body mesh) + Frame_bone_box (+ box mesh) + left wheel joints + meshes.


I hope all that helps you Rob!

S.

Stridor,

Yes sir ... it helps alot!! [&o] I'll have a go at the bling ... as soon as I fix my wobbly wheels [;)].

I found a good TC to use (sway) ... and I'll see about adding some animation ... If blender imports animation it would save me some steps but I'll have to teach myself how to use blender at that point. I'd prefer to start fresh with MS3D and I already know the frame names -> I have the Poly Trans Demo which shows me the heirarchy for that ... which will save you from having to explain that!! [:D] ... see SS. Also, appears the demo doesn't have a time limit but it has bigtime restrictions for exporting ... aka it's of no use.

Thanks again!

Rob

Stridor,

You know, one other idea came to mind. I feel as though there's dead time after the death animation ... 251-300.

I wish they could bump up the death key frame to last (266-300) and use the available space (216-265) for gunfire animation ... ie, like the recoil effect and having the empty brass catridge come flying out of the loader's little side hatch.

I dunno ... just another smelly human thinking again.[&:]

Rob

@Stridor, a further animation question

I would like to ask, if it is possible to show us a x.file (text) with an animation of only a part of the mesh (TC). I would like to see the correct form of the XSkinMesher part to compare it against the blender output.

Thanks and Regards
Motomouse

MM I will get back to you on that shortly. If I don't please remind me ok.